I felt embarrassed for a moment, but then I realized I had no reason. Everyone here thought Jack was the best kind of guy. Sure, the age gap was huge, and I wasn’t eighteen yet, but I had a feeling nobody there would object if something came out of us eventually.
“It is what it is,” I answered honestly. “Bad timing or something like that.”
River stepped closer and hugged me quickly. “If you do need to talk, I’m here, okay?”
“I know.” I squeezed him, then pulled back. “I’ll go check on the Ms.”
“This must be so overwhelming for them.” River grimaced. “I wish there was something we could do to make it easier for them.”
“I think it’ll be fine by the time we sit down to eat. Everyone will have calmed down a little.” I winced at the volume of either Penny or Poppy’s giggle. “I’ll…” I gestured toward the stairs.
“Yeah. And…I’ll make sure they’ll be mindful, okay?”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
* * * *
I knocked on the siblings’ door and Madden told me to come in.
They were cuddled on the bed, with Mona clutching a stuffed bunny Lake had bought her a while back. She wasn’t much for toys, but Madden had told me it was a comfort item for her now, so she must’ve been really stressed out.
“Can I come join you guys?”
Madden smiled tiredly. “Of course.”
Their bed was pushed against the wall, and Mona was on the wall’s side, so I went and cuddled behind Madden, then reached over to put my hand on her, too.
“I think I could be good at this big spoon thing,” I said after a while.
Madden chuckled under his breath. “As if you want to be a big spoon with…” He trailed off.
I snorted. “I would need to be a fucking ladle.”
Mona giggled. “A ladle…” Luckily, she had no idea what we were talking about.
Sighing, I relaxed further into Madden’s body. He’d put on some weight after he got out of the hospital, which was great. Even Mona looked healthier. I knew it had happened to me too after Jack came back to the rescue.
I hadn’t been starving or anything, but eating well, especially with the way Jack put thought into every meal and made sure it was nutritious, would change your body. Before I left home, I’d been surviving mostly on takeout and that was…yeah. Not always the best.
“I hope someone comes to wake us up for dinner,” Madden murmured.
I realized I’d closed my eyes, too. “I’m sure they will.”
Pressing my face between his shoulder blades, I let myself doze off.
Chapter 18
Jack
I checked him out and we both knew it.I checked him out and we both knew it.
The way I felt half-panicked about doing that made it more than clear how deep I was with this thing, with him. And how fucking wrong it was.
He was a kid. He had a perfectly fine boy of his age in the house who he was physically close to which I knew could lead to being even closer. I needed to let the boys be and just…Ugh.
The news of River and Ben’s engagement was wonderful. They were good people, and from what Ben had told me about their past, I was so happy to hear they’d overcome the obstacles.
The kittens were cute, too. The way they joked about being dads now was endearing as fuck.
